Interview: Tsang views Hong Kong as Russia's best business partner in Asia

MOSCOW, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Donald Tsang Yan-Kuen, Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HKSAR), who was currently on a visit to Russia, said here Thursday that Hong Kong was the "best business partner" for Russia in Asia.

Chinese Hong Kong and Russia have locked several key cooperative sectors, including technical innovations, in particular communications and information technology, as well as financing, Tsang told Xinhua in an interview.

According to Tsang, Chinese mainland, the United States and the European Union (EU) are three traditional markets for Hong Kong.

Since the U.S. "already saturated" and the EU "full of challenges," he said, Hong Kong was currently in urgent need to seek new markets.

"For us, Russia, the Middle East and India are the most important targets," he said.

Along with Tsang some 30 Hong Kong representatives, such as presidents of service companies, board chairmen and senior regulators, have also come to Russia.

"This reflects our attention to Russia, a key market," said Tsang.

Statistics showed that from 2005 to 2009, bilateral trade volume between Hong Kong and Russia has witnessed an average annual growth of 12.5 percent.

In the first half of 2010, bilateral trade volume surged 113 percent to 1.1 billion U.S. dollars as compared with the same period last year.

Chinese men´s national team continued its preparations for next year´s Asian Cup, as they managed a one-all draw against visitors Jordan during a football friendly in Harbin, the capital city of Northeast China´s Heilongjiang Province.China held to 1-1 draw by Jordan

Across the UK the hunt is on for James Foley’s killer, who authorities believe is a British national. As Richard Bestic reports from London, Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his summer break to lead his government’s response.

As the protests in the town of Ferguson, Missouri turned violent with police facing ´heavy gunfire´ from some ´criminal elements´, cops fired tear gas, stun grenades and arrested 31 demonstrators on Monday night.